P&O Princess Declines Carnival Offer

As Royal Caribbean, P&O Princess and Carnival Corp. await the next big hurdle in the various proposed mergers -- that being the weighing in of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission -- skirmishing continues. In a letter to P&O Princess leader Peter Ratcliffe, Carnival Corp. Micky Arison, in an effort to finally arrange a sit-down with P&O Princess management, writes, "Given that Carnival has now received EU clearance, and in light of our continued mutual commitment to obtaining clearances in the US and to concluding a transaction with P&O Princess, we believe firmly that both your value and deliverability conditions have now been satisfied. P&O Princess should, therefore, have no further reason not to meet with us and we believe it is clearly in the best interests of P&O Princess shareholders that such a meeting takes place."
Princess’ Peter Ratcliffe responded to Arison’s multi-page letter with extraordinary brevity, declining to meet. "We are mindful of the rights and obligations of Royal Caribbean and P&O Princess under our agreement, and of the interests of P&O Princess' shareholders. Under the terms of our agreement with Royal Caribbean, we are not in a position to meet with you."
Stay tuned.